Mental Health Warriors & Wisconsin Wonders (Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who believes a penny saved isn't Jack... Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

Great to have you with me on this Thursday night in beautiful downtown Green Bay.

Weather is starting to get a little warmer slowly, but surely, and spring is upon us in Wisconsin.

It doesn't really seem like it wants to be, but we'll get there.

All right, so coming up in just a few minutes, or at the bottom of the hour, I should say, is Logan Roge.

He is from Travel Wisconsin.

He's their senior communications specialist.

He will be here to tell us what's going on in springtime in Wisconsin.

Always fun to talk to Logan.

Right now, I'm excited to talk to my next guest.

We've established he has the coolest name.

in show business.

But he also, we've been talking about film festivals a lot because I was just at the Wisconsin Film Festival, the Milwaukee Film Festival is right around the corner.

But wedged in between these two big film festivals, probably the two biggest in the state, is another really cool film festival.

And this next guest founded it.

He's also a writer.

And he joins us now over the stream, Maximilian Blaska.

Hey, Max.

Oh, thanks for having me, Pete.

I have to ask, do you go by Maximilian or Max?

Do you have a preference?

I prefer Max.

Okay.

My Facebook account was deleted back in 2010.

And so that's why on Facebook I'm Maximilian, but everywhere else I'm just Max.

Okay.

So in that case, I'm kind of glad you said that because I had a horse in this race.

I was hoping for Max because Max Blaska is, I don't think you could find a cooler name anywhere.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do you like your

name?

Yes, yes, it's Bohemian German.

Oh, okay.

I Just think it's cool.

So I think you

could

say that when people ask you your ethnicity you could just say it's cool You should understand it.

Thank you.

Max.

It's great to have you tonight We have all right, so I was just talking about these other film festivals Do you go to other film festivals?

We'll jump into the mental health warrior film festival shortly here, but

Did you scout other film festivals to get ideas, or how do you even go about starting a film festival?

Well, it all started when I was the lead writer and creator of Last Ring the Ladder, the Stephen King Dollar Baby film that I co-wrote.

And the film became a message about mental health.

Right.

And not just the story itself, but

my story of I've struggled with severe anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction most of my life.

And this film, basically, I became my own.

I basically, it's saved and changed my life.

And I knew that there were other filmmakers out there who basically have the same story.

And I wanted to have a film festival that was all about mental health.

And I took my film, last week on the ladder, to film festivals in...

Vegas, California, mental health festival in Denver, Colorado, one of the six.

And I wanted to have my own.

And of course, in the first year, I screened my own film.

And we had films in our first year from all over America and a couple of international ones.

That's really exciting.

All right, so the last rung on the ladder, we've talked a lot about it on this show, actually, because some of your collaborators, Kurt Krauss, Jeff Blankenship, and a lot of guys you know up here in northeast Wisconsin, were part of that.

You were the writer and one of the producers.

How is that intimidating trying to adapt Stephen King's work, maybe one of the most prolific writers of the modern day?

Being a fan, yes.

I was afraid that I might do things that might upset him.

But I haven't heard that he hated it.

I haven't heard that he loved it.

I'm working on a letter to send them about adapting to a feature film if I can get over my dreadful fear of rejection and actually send it out.

Boy, that's... It's interesting that you have... I mean, we all have a fear of rejection, but in this business to have...

A serious fear of rejection.

How do you deal with that?

Well, I like to tell I have the same fears that everyone else does just when you have OCD and anxiety depression multiplied by 10 But the thing is I just push through it and when I get the victory It's twice the sweeter for it and

and

that's why this film festival I mean having your own film festival and having filmmakers from

Chicago, from Iowa, from California, from Toronto, Canada, come darn to an event I put on.

It was awesome.

But even though I had one successful film festival, I'm now terrified that I will have an unsuccessful film festival this May 3rd.

Really?

Yes.

And I found out that imposter syndrome is anxiety for successful people.

Okay, very interesting.

Yeah, well right every time we take a swing There's always that potential that you'll get rejected or that you're they won't like your script or like a joke you wrote or a song whatever Does does writing max help you deal with your OCD is that therapeutic in any way or do you stress about that too?

Um When I can get through the first five to seven minutes of pure terror

It flows like a river.

But

it's

getting through that period.

Just like sending out emails to people who might be able to help me for my film festival.

I sent an email to Miam Bialik's breakdown podcast, seeing if she might be interested in talking about my film festival and contacting potential sponsors.

All these things would make normal people uncomfortable.

But for me, it's almost paralyzing, but I do it anyway.

And that's what a mental health warrior does.

You go through all the depression, anxiety, and some people hallucinations, whatever the mental illness is, but you break through it.

And I believe creativity is one of the best tools we have to fight both the demons inside us, but also the stigma surrounding mental illness.

And that's the whole point of mental health warrior.

That's so very well said.

And it's so great that you, I mean, everybody deals with mental health on one level or another.

So for you to have had your experiences and created a film festival with this theme, I think is really spectacular Max.

So.

It says on your website, the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival is a film festival that focuses on breaking down mental health barriers through cinema.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Yes.

All the films feature a deal with mental illness in one way or another.

One of the films that's screening this year called She's on the Run is from a filmmaker of Indiana.

about a woman dealing with depression and suicidal relation who goes into kind of a 1980s fantasy, something like 80s music, 80s clothes.

There is a couple films about people who are feeling suicidal and overcoming.

There's a great Russian film called Alice about a suicidal guy in relationship with an AI.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, and we have films like from all over the world.

And the great thing about us is you can see the films May 4th at Flix Brewhouse in Madison, Wisconsin.

But there were so many films.

We got 60 short films and 10 features.

But we only had enough money to have a one day film festival.

So I decided to make it hybrid.

So we could have the films that were high quality, but we just couldn't fit into schedule.

that people can watch from the fourth, sorry, the in-person film festival's a third.

The online is from the fourth to the 11th.

And we have films from Asia, films from like Europe, and I'm very proud of our selection.

My guest is Max Blaska, the owner of The Coolest Name.

Maybe not just in show business, maybe anywhere.

He joins us over the stream tonight to talk about his film, The Last Rung on the Ladder, and the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival, which takes place May 4th at Flix Brewhouse in Madison.

May 3rd at Flix Brewhouse.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought May 4th was...

I want to make that clear.

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The fourth is when we...

have the films available online.

Oh, okay.

I'm sorry.

I misunderstood.

Okay.

Thank you for clearing that up.

That's

okay.

Is it harder to program a Festival Max that has such a specific mission?

Like you just said, all the films, not just a theme, but all the films that you pick have a mental health angle to them.

Are there more

out there

than we thought or are they hard to find?

Um, no, I mean, like I said, we had to turn some dawn because we had like 60 shorts and 10 features.

But thankfully we have a great committee with Kurt Krause, a filmmaker from Chicago, Richard Bergen, Deanna Culver, Brian Bells here from Madison, Jessica Haseley.

And I know I'm forgetting someone and I apologize if I am.

One of the things about having anxiety is you have brain fog and your brain is going so fast that sometimes you forget things.

Right, absolutely.

I'll go ahead.

But I had a committee that was able to like say, well, maybe not this one, but this one.

Wait, we don't have enough comedies.

Let's put this one because it's a comedy and we'll make sure we have a documentary.

So it what was difficult was trying to decide what to screen in person and what to just screen online.

Okay, very well said.

Do

you

have you have other?

mental health platforms surrounding the movies, right?

Don't you have, I remember this from last year, you had mental health people on site that people could talk

to.

Yes.

So interesting.

Tell us about

that.

We are partnering this year with Anami, Wisconsin, and Frankie Joe Moscato's suicide prevention foundation.

She's up in Oshkosh.

And so we will have a few specialists at the theater.

We will have a representative from Flanky Joe's foundation.

We will have pamphlets and flyers that have mental health resources in the area.

We will have cards with suicide prevention numbers on it.

And this is as much of an awareness festival as it is about films.

And it's a fundraiser.

That's one of the interesting things that make kind of us difference is

It is all proceeds will either go to NAMI, Wisconsin, or, uh, and, uh, Plucky Joe, uh, Moscato's, uh, foundation.

And this year is slightly different because we're partnering with NAMI, an umbrella organization that, uh, one-third of the proceeds will help fund next year's festival.

That's fantastic.

All right.

My guest is Max Blaskett.

We'll have a few more minutes with Max, uh, after this very short break.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It's been great to have you with me on this Thursday night.

Lots of film talk.

It was our popcorn pick of the week with John and Gordy.

Now we're talking to Max Blaska, who is the founder of the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival.

Our question tonight is what celebrity commercial drives you the most crazy or do you dislike the most?

Christine from the 414 says that actor painting everything orange.

I forgot his name.

Do you know that one?

I looked it up.

I could not find who it is.

Yeah.

Thank you for the text, though, but I think the Bridget's text about Ryan Reynolds was just spot on.

I can't believe I forgot about that.

My guest is Max Blaska, who is the founder of the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival.

Max, you made reference earlier to a mental health warrior.

Is that someone who just confronts their mental health, or can you be more specific about defining what that

means?

I don't like the word survivor.

He's a mental health survivor or he suffers from mental illness.

It's a little too passive.

So that's why I like mental health warrior.

I mean, we fight thoughts that would drive other people to the hills.

I mean, we have paralyzing anxiety, we have hallucinations, we have paranoia, we have depression, we have suicide adulation, but we don't let it stop us.

We fight, we move on.

We move forward.

And that is the whole point of this.

And actors and musicians have been open about being mental health.

That's why I'm making videos on my Instagram channel to celebrities.

It might not do anything, but Ryan Reynolds is actually, it's funny that you mentioned Ryan Reynolds.

He has been so open about his struggles with anxiety.

He actually spoke at a mental health nonprofits big conference last year.

He's my white whale.

If I could, because I have dreams of other mental health events, like concerts where musicians sing the songs that got them through high school, sci-fi conventions, comedy shows, all dealing with mental health.

I mean, that's the ultimate dream.

Yeah.

Oh, that's fantastic.

And

yeah.

Oh, go ahead.

I also want to say we did one thing different in this film festival than last year.

Last year was just an all-day pass and a lot of people kind of thought, wow, I don't want to spend all day in the theater.

So this year we have two blocks of two 90-minute screenings each.

An afternoon block with two 90-minute screenings of shorts and an evening block with one 90-minute block of shorts and a feature film.

That's fantastic.

Give us the dates again.

It's a Flix Brewhouse, right?

In Madison,

Max?

Give us the exact dates.

Flicks blue house on the third it starts at one and The the second block starts at 530.

Okay.

We're having a mixer at The Java cat cat nearby East town the previous night the second at seven and the films For any of our viewers who are not in Wisconsin who can't come down the online festival starts the fuck this Sunday

the fourth.

And if you can only make it to one of the blocks the afternoon of the evening, you will be given a code to see the films you would have missed online.

And how can people find, do they just Google Mental Health Warrior Film Festival and they'll have access to tickets?

The website is www.mentalhealthwarriorfilmfest.com.

We are on Facebook.

and Instagram, and you can Google if you want, but our website is the best because it also shows, we show all the films that are screening in person, or Eventive Virtual has all the films that we're screening virtual.

That's excellent.

You've got some fans on the stream, Max, too.

Jeff Blankenship says, this is a great festival.

He also says, he answered our question.

He said, I have grown very tired of the Manning Brothers ads with you, Jeff.

And then

Craig.

Me,

too, Jeff.

Max, too.

Craig says, yay, Max.

So it's great to have you on the show.

Before we let you go, Max, where can we see or can we see the last rung in the ladder

yet?

No, not yet.

But you know what, I have to just, what's the worst that could happen?

King would not answer back, or King's lawyers will say, stop sending me letters.

The problem is, is it still King owns the rights?

I can only screen it in film festivals.

I'm sending it to Wawiga, and I will let you know if there are any film festivals in the area that are gonna screen it.

All right, fantastic.

Well, it's been great having you on the show, Max.

Don't be

a stranger.

Thank you,

Pete.

I wish you luck.

Break a leg with the

phone.

Oh, Pete, if you would want to come, we do have a couple of comp tickets set aside for a press.

Oh, that's, thank you very much.

I will, I wish I, I don't live in Madison, but if I can make it down there, I would love to.

I love film festivals and I just love the energy of them.

So I appreciate that.

And I'll, I'll let you know, maybe I can work it out.

Who knows.

So thank

you very

much though.

Thank

you.

Have a great night, Max.

And good luck with the festival.

It's great getting to know you.

Thank you, buddy.

You too.

All right, that's Max Blaska, the coolest name and show business, ladies and gentlemen.

PJ on the stream says, oh, the US cellular commercials are annoying.

I have to mute them each time they play.

I do that with a lot of ads, PJ.

Steady Eddie weighed in here on the text line.

He says, worst celebrity commercial.

Don't even know their names.

One guy is white, the other guy is black.

I think they are on a TV show.

And in the ad, they are singing badly about Verizon and some other dumb phone company.

Really bad, help me.

Is that the T-Mobile?

That's my least favorite.

Steady Eddie, you and I are commercial celebrity-hating soulmates here, buddy.

He says, had a Chevy Caprice 30 years ago, it was pretty much the same as a Buickler Saver.

The anti-chick magnets.

The Caprice and the Le Sabre were brothers by another General Motors mother.

My Chevy Caprice was stolen twice.

Oh, how desperate were they?

Unfortunately for me, I got it back both times.

Fortunately?

No, he said unfortunately.

Like, only steady at he can.

FYI, the Le Sabre was made from 1959 through 2015.

So in another 10 or 15 years, you won't have the beautiful, beautiful Le Sabre to kick around anymore.

And then he says, Mr. Swabba.

He's making fun of my name, Conrad.

He knows how to spell it.

Steady Edward, steadfast Eddie.

He says, Pete, concerning last night's question, I'm thinking about changing my name, but because of high inflation, instead of max a million, I'm thinking about changing my name to max a billion or max a trillion.

Well done, Steady Eddie, as always.

He says, oh, and then another text from him.

He says, Pete, the guy painting the house orange commercial, Ted Danson, consumer cellular.

Maybe it is.

Let's take his word for it.

I don't know.

We've got pre-recorded content coming up, folks, but thank you for all your texts.

This has been a fun question, and we'll be right back after the news.

Civic Media's news team will keep you informed, and Logan Rogie will be here to tell us all the cool places we should be going in Wisconsin this spring and summer.

This is Pete Schwab at Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It is the Christmas Eve of weeknights, folks.

Thursday night here at Night Light, great to have you with me as we broadcast live statewide from beautiful downtown Green Bay.

And for our next guest, I think he would agree it's beautiful in downtown Green Bay and probably also agree that everywhere in our state is beautiful because that's his job.

Logan Rogie has been on the show before.

He's the senior communication specialist at Travel Wisconsin, and he joins us now over the stream.

Hey, buddy, how are you?

Doing well Pete.

Thanks for having me back on the program and Christmas Eve of the weekend.

I love that description That's how I always feel on a Thursday.

Same here.

You can't go wrong with a Thursday night and It's kind of like Christmas Eve all the time for you though You get to like I love having you on to discuss fun things about Wisconsin and I have a few other guests I have on

that I do that with as well.

But, you know, all you do is explore the state and probably you have stuff about your job that's not as fun, but I would imagine every day's Christmas when you're talking about Wisconsin, right?

Yeah, it's you know, it's great to talk about Wisconsin It's better to go out and experience it yourself one of the things that I just love so much about the state is it's it's not static where we're dynamic, you know We're a four seasons destination with different sort of experiences events and activities in every single season So excited to be joining you today to talk about some of those spring focused ideas and what folks can get out and do this season

That's that's great

You just made me think of something.

How much of your job, you know, you're the senior communication specialist.

So how much of your job, if any, do you actually use to explore the state or do you do that on your free time?

Like how much of it is getting out of the office and seeing some of these things that you that you talk about a lot?

It's a little bit of here and there.

I was in La Crosse earlier, earlier this year on a work trip.

It was awesome.

That was the first time I'd have been back and.

probably a good eight years and such a special community, you know, right there on the Mississippi River, you got that 600 foot granddad bluff, just framing the city.

So I do have those opportunities to get out and experience the state through the eyes of my work, but I love taking it in personally through the lens of camping.

love spending time outdoors.

We have such a strong state park system.

They're actually celebrating 125 years this year, the Wisconsin state park system.

So I have several trips planned on the books for this summer to get out and explore the state through the state parks.

That is fantastic.

Well, let's talk about some of the stuff coming up.

You've got you guys have a trail report.

Just sort of a resource to plan hiking and biking trips.

What what is

Where are the best places to do that and tell us a little bit about what you guys would recommend?

Yeah, so the Wisconsin Trail Report, it's this comprehensive tool for planning those outdoor adventures.

You'd mention it's hiking and biking and really this is a interactive map to help folks kind of take the guesswork of the planning.

You can find more than 175 trail networks scattered throughout the state.

for hiking and biking.

You'll learn about what the conditions are like.

That is especially important for biking in the early part of the season when those trails might be a little muddy and they're closed.

So you can learn exactly when they open.

But we want to make it more than just learning about conditions.

It's also a planning resource.

You can click a trail on that map.

You can find out.

you know, nearby restaurants to check out or places to stay, events that

are

happening in the area.

So at this point, you know, we're just gearing up that resource for the season and it's going to be a good one to go to throughout the spring, summer and fall.

But you would ask, you know, for a hiking recommendation, this is one I haven't been to myself, but it's in the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

So I've been...

Just a gem of Southeast Wisconsin and they have a ton of different hiking options But there's this cool one called the Paradise Springs nature trail that that's near Eagle, Wisconsin in it actually winds past the remnants of this former resort hotel that the elite of Milwaukee used to go to so you're gonna

kind of go by these like dilapidated remains of this early 20th century hotel.

They have a horse track there, shuffleboard court, trout holding pond.

But the end of this trail is it's the signature site.

It's this hauntingly beautiful abandoned spring house.

So just really kind of like a hidden gem.

Wow, that sounds fantastic.

I want to ask you something on a list you sent us because I find this really

exciting up near Pestigo on the Pestigo River a few years ago.

I think it was March or April.

We went over there because the sturgeon were coming up to spawn.

And I was absolutely fascinated how close there's like a walkway over the Pestigo River, this little area near an old factory.

And you're eight or nine feet away from the sturgeon.

There's so many of them.

They're crawling over each other.

Some of them were 10 or 12 feet long.

You say the Sturgeon Spawn in Sean O'County.

Did we miss that in Northeast Wisconsin or is that still coming up?

So I'm so glad you'd mentioned this because a co-worker of mine has highly recommend checking out the Sturgeon Spawn.

He is an avid outdoorsman.

He's seen, you know, Blue Whales and all these other like

massive creatures and incredible natural phenomena.

He puts that sturgeon spawn at the top of the list.

I know in Chano, at their sturgeon park, that's a popular place to see the sturgeon spawn.

That typically happens in April, but the city of Chano helps take the guess, work out of it.

They actually operate a sturgeon cam with a live feed.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, so you can see when the sturgeon are spawning and be able to plan that trip there.

Really a quick accessible day trip option for folks living in northeast Wisconsin.

How do you access that, the sturgeon camp?

Is it on their city website or on your website?

How does that work?

Yeah, that's at thecityofshano.com website.

That is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

For those of you listening who have never seen something like this, you're so close to them.

They're so big and they're prehistoric creatures.

It's like something you have never seen before.

Very exciting.

You also have on the list the Janesville, a lot of things in southern Wisconsin, the Janesville Rotary Botanical Gardens.

What's going on there?

So, you know, spring is when all those buds and blossoms start popping up.

It's one of the big reasons people love the season and they are going to be on full display soon at the Jamesville Rotary Botanical Garden.

It's just this really like community gem that invite visitors to stroll through the gardens.

They actually have 20 distinct garden styles there.

they showcase over 4,000 varieties of plants.

And as spring keeps progressing, you know, more and the more of those flowers are going to come to bloom or the plants will come to life.

So just a really cool place to go out and just take in some beautiful, you know, manicured and just nature this spring.

Yeah, that is so much work goes into that and keeping them, you know,

fresh and beautiful.

It's really unbelievable.

And Botanical Gardens are great places to visit anywhere, really.

And then you've got in Beloit here, the ballpark.

I didn't even know.

I've never been to that ballpark.

I've taken in some Timber Rattlers games up north here.

But tell us about what's happening at the Beloit baseball park.

Yeah.

So if you're headed to Janesville, you might as well pair it with another pastime of spring.

That is baseball.

Um, and a great thing about Beloit is you can get that small town charm with a big stadium feel at the Beloit Sky Carp.

Fantastic name.

Great

name.

They are a minor league baseball team.

They're affiliates of the Miami, Miami Marlins and their season actually just kicked off last week.

Okay.

And you're, you're seriously going to have a blast hearing on that hometown team and their ABC supply stadium that just opened, um, four years ago.

So they have the modern amenities you've associated with state-of-the-art baseball stadiums, but you get that intimacy of a minor league game.

So you can just be really up close to the action, kind of like you're in the executive level at...

Like at a brewers game, you're just you're right there next to the action.

They've got concession stands, a pro shop to get your sky carp swag, post game fireworks, a ton of other fun stuff happening.

I want something that says sky carp on it in my wardrobe.

I don't care if it's baseball related or not.

I just think it would be some good looking threads.

So are you a baseball fan, Logan?

I am.

I am.

All

right.

I, um, you didn't

laugh at my joke.

That's why I thought maybe I offended you or something, but I could tell you kind

of trying

to hold back your laughter.

So that's okay.

If we're talking minor league, uh, minor league baseball teams that, that crack me up.

I'm saying the make the makin bacon.

That's a good one.

Um, the mud hens, um, sky carp is right up there though.

I love the creativity you get in the, in the minor league, but no,

Big baseball fan growing up.

We planned road trips specifically to see big city stadiums.

You know, I went to the Brewers game on one of those road trips and it was awesome.

Such a memorable trip.

And there's something too about like minor league baseball.

It's a little more laid back, but you still see great all out baseball, which I think is a fun experience.

You've got some spring events you sent us, which sound great.

I love this one, the Wisconsin grilled cheese championships in Dodgeville.

How fun is that event?

Yeah, Pete, some might say it's too gooey to be true.

Sorry.

Thank you for your joke.

Listen, I

laughed at your joke.

That's what a good host does, Logan.

And I actually enjoy it too.

So,

but no, yeah, we are, we're serious about our food in Wisconsin, especially when it comes to cheese.

So you can, you know, you can show off your spatula skills at the Wisconsin grilled cheese championship.

That's.

in Dodgeville on April 26th.

And really it's just a ton of different cooks competing against each other from pros to kids.

And there's different classes of competition.

Like they have the classic sandwich where you are limited to bread, butter, and cheese.

That's it.

They have other categories that folks compete in.

And that happens at Harris Park in the Lay Memorial Pavilion.

Definitely consider getting the VIP ticket too if you want to go because you get a taste test some of those sandwiches

folks are

making So but but you know what at the end of the day there's just one thing that's unifying everyone who's at the grilled cheese Championships and the sandwiches of course that is the real Wisconsin cheese that's being celebrated

Absolutely, and there's something about when you get that and gooey as you say but with the like the crunchy when you do the bread just right.

Oh my gosh, there's nothing better than that

put a little garlic powder on top of that bread.

That's nice.

Look at you.

That's fantastic.

This sounds cool, too.

A hundred mile garage sale along the Mississippi River.

Where does that start and where does that end?

That sounds incredible.

Yeah, right.

It sounds a little unbelievable, but that's that's that's just kind of Wisconsin.

You know, we kind of celebrate.

Everything we find a reason to celebrate everything and the 100 mile garage sale that takes place on the Great River Road So that's gonna take you through communities like Alma, Nelson, Pepin, Stockholm, Made in Rock and there if you haven't been out there I mean these are just the coolest

riverside charming communities and businesses and homeowners throughout the route.

They're going to put out these distinctive colored ribbons letting you know they're participating in the garage sale so you can find your treasures, your knickknacks, all sort of things you'd find at a garage sale, but cruising the Great River Road.

So that takes place May 1st through

May 4th.

It's a good weekend option if you're looking to get out this spring.

I'm glad you said it was a weekend.

That would be tough to cover in a day.

You'd have to pretty much sprint to

hit your

house.

That's awesome.

So also, we got the US Women's Open at Aaron Hill's coming up.

That's pretty exciting.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so Wisconsin is hosting another premier sporting event this spring You should start planning now to see the world's best golfers compete at Aaron Hills for the 80th women's US women's open This is really the pre eminent women's major championship in golf and you're gonna witness some career defining moments.

Yeah

Yeah, yeah, the variety of ticket options for folks to choose from from daily tickets to weekly packages.

And it's incredibly family friendly to kids 17 and under get in for free with ticketed adult.

Nice.

Logan Roge is my guest, folks.

He does great work at Travel Wisconsin.

He's the senior communication specialist.

We've got a couple more things we want to discuss that are coming up for your Wisconsin visiting, viewing, experiencing pleasure.

That's all coming up after this very short break, and we'll close this thing down.

On Nightlight with Pete Schwabba on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back.

Lots of fun tomorrow night on the show, folks.

Dr. Kristin Lierly will be here talking about her new talk show here at Civic Media, which is very exciting.

It's a bar band Friday night.

And Sean Hannish will be here, the director of Just A Bit Outside with some big news about his film, that if you haven't seen it yet, you'll have access to it.

We'll cover all of that tomorrow night.

Thank you for all your calls and texts tonight.

I'd like to thank Max Blaska and John and Gordy, and we have a couple more minutes here with our current guest, Logan Rogie from Travel Wisconsin.

So Logan, I wanna ask you something.

If there's something in front of the legislature here in Wisconsin about film incentives passing,

Does that make your job any easier?

Or is that something you guys get excited about?

Because shooting films in a beautiful state like Wisconsin can only help tourism, right?

Yeah, Pete.

I'm glad you asked about that.

You know, the Department of Tourism, we recognize how important television films can be in shaping and improving perceptions for Wisconsin.

You know, we saw that with Bravo's Top Chef.

That was an incredible season.

based in Wisconsin, taking folks to Milwaukee, Madison, Taliesin, bringing in different hosts or guests from around the state.

And we were so glad to play a role in bringing Rob's Top Chef to Wisconsin that we'd like to see more productions come to the state because we know it helps.

with local communities increases tourism.

It provides jobs to Wisconsin based crew members.

So it's...

Oh,

sorry.

I thought we lost you there for a second.

It's an exciting possibility.

Yeah, I agree.

I think it's a great way to just celebrate the beauty that is here.

I mean, is there a place, Logan, that people from out of state, like let's say Chicago, Minneapolis, or Milwaukee, tend to gravitate to when it comes to tourism in Wisconsin?

I don't know if the North Woods are popular.

I went up there as a kid.

But where do people from outside the state, where do they find the most beauty or the most exciting place to visit here?

So we tend to see our out of the state visitors disperse.

Across the state, you know if we're talking from folks for folks from from the Twin Cities We're seeing a lot of them go to that western and northwestern part of the state so think kind of Hayward Bayfield Eau Claire area Chicago a lot of popular destinations would be in southern and south central Wisconsin as well as northeast in the north woods, Iowa They love going to the driftless area there.

So, you know

There's a really broad geographic dispersion of our out-of-state visitors.

That's great.

OK, we've got about, let's say, a minute-ish left.

Logan, really appreciate your time.

And it's great to hear about this stuff in our state.

Tell us about the Racine Art Museum's Peeps exhibition.

Does that have anything to do with Easter by chance?

You are spot on.

I knew

it.

It's a very timely one.

It's a popular exhibition every year.

It is the community making artwork out of peeps candy, that iconic marshmallow candy.

You know, they're putting together these whimsical, often comical pieces of artwork when they're combining peeps with other material.

The exhibition, it's on display now through April 26.

And be sure to check out all the other galleries at the Racine Art Museum.

It's actually home to North America.

because largest contemporary craft collection.

So great one to get on the calendar this spring.

Fantastic.

Before we let you go, you watching anything you can recommend?

You got a good binge watch going?

I just

binged adolescence and from a technical production perspective, from an acting perspective, from writing and the blocking of all the extras.

It was phenomenal.

Wasn't that incredible?

One shot through every episode.

They never switched shots.

And I just finished it yesterday heart-wrenching.

I mean, I don't want to give any spoilers away, but what an amazing show.

I'm totally with you.

Yeah, I would highly recommend it for any cinephiles out there.

All right, fantastic.

Logan, thank you so much as always, buddy.

It's always great to talk to you and keep doing great stuff there at Travel Wisconsin.

Thanks for having me, Pete.

Anytime.

All right, that's Logan Rogi.

He just gave you a ton of suggestions for this spring and even into the summer.

So take advantage of those folks.

We live in a beautiful state and it's good to know the word is getting out.

So, boy, we got a fun one tomorrow night, Conrad.

Kristen

Lively.

I agree,

yeah.

How does she, she's got a new show here.

She's going to talk to us about, but how does she, how has she not already had a show on the air?

She's so good on the radio.

Yeah, she is the many times she's been on our show.

I feel like we always get a good promo out of it

Yes indeed I have questions to ask her that I'm

And I know she won't back away because she's not afraid of any questions And Sean Hannish is gonna be here also with news about his documentary just a bit outside.

Have you seen it yet?

Yeah, I can't actually I can't wait till it comes on streaming.

I can watch it again And

we have so you have seen yes, and you loved it, right?

It's

such a good movie.

Okay

If you if you're a diehard brewers fan, it makes it even better

even if you're not a brewers fan.

It's a great story

Yeah,

I mean it

almost it's even a better story that

for his film's purposes, and I haven't seen it yet, that they lost because it shows what Milwaukee is about and what Brewer fans are about and how supportive they are.

I think to me, that's the kind of the romance of

the

film.

So we'll do all of that.

That's tomorrow night on Nightlight.

This is the Christmas Eve of weekdays.

Is tomorrow gonna be a letdown because it's Christmas day?

I don't think so.

I'm

gonna have a good day tomorrow.

Okay, you guys start stretching out to the draft is right around the corner

Well, you know, I I can stretch out I think maybe a couple days in advance

not take not a couple weeks.

I don't think you take sports seriously You're taking time off for the draft that that shows your seriousness.

You got to start doing some yoga All right, we will be back to do all of this again tomorrow night folks Thank you for your text and calls and being part of nightlight on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad

Good night

Wisconsin.